Clintons request that taxpayers ante up for Whitewater costs

Published: Saturday, July 27, 2002

WASHINGTON (AP)  Former President Clinton and his wife have asked a court to have taxpayers reimburse them for legal costs related to the White water investigation, their lawyer said in a statement late Friday.

The Clintons raked in millions of dollars last year after leaving the White House. The former president earned $9.2 million on the lecture circuit, and Hillary Clinton  now New York's junior senator  re ceived an $2.85 million advance on her memoirs.

But they still have legal bills totaling between $1.75 million and $6.5 million, according to the financial disclosure form Mrs. Clinton was required to file as a member of the Senate. The Clintons paid $1.3 million in legal bills last year, according to the Senate filing.

It is unknown how much of the outstanding bills are related to the probe into the failed Arkansas land deal. The Clintons were never charged in connection with the White water probe.

In a statement, first reported by ABC News, Clinton lawyer David Kendall said he was seeking reimbursement under the independent counsel statute and was following the precedent set by ex-presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, both Republicans.

In 1996, Reagan was awarded $562,111 in legal fees by a federal appeals court that said he had reason to believe he faced "a realistic possibility" of being indicted in the Iran-Contra case. Reagan had sought $777,651. The court also approved legal fee reimbursements to Bush, Reagan's vice president, for $272,352, and for two Reagan Cabinet officers, Secretary of State George Shultz and former chief of staff and Treasury Secretary Donald Regan.

The independent counsel law pays legal fees for the subject of an investigation if no indictment results.

Kendall's firm is owed $1 million-$5 million by the Clintons.

Mrs. Clinton's office referred all questions to Kendall, who was traveling and could not immediately be reached for further comment Friday. A spokesman for Bill Clinton could not be reached for comment.

The former president charged from $75,000 to $350,000 per speech last year and delivered lectures around the globe. Mrs. Clinton is still owed the remainder of her $8 million book deal with Simon and Schuster, and she receives a Senate salary.